Knoxville, TN lurker finally posting (weight loss story)

Hello MFP users! Ive been a lurker for the past 2+ months, usually just logging my days and keeping to myself. I've been working closely with my doctor and his nutrionist, regarding my diet log, and have seen some incredible results.

A little background about myself. I'm 31 years old, born and raised in Knoxville, TN. I was an extremely active child through my teenage years. I was on multiple state winning baseball teams, football teams, and even won multiple junior state titles in golf in a row. During my high school years I began to leave sports other than golf, and ended up playing golf in high school for a military academy. I've always been a stocky build and this school helped tone me up. However, after high school I discovered the joys of beer, pizza, and other bar foods that is 20 somethings find quite enjoyable. Several years of the late night outings with friends, and a decrease in activity to next to nothing saw my weight shoot from low 200s to around 300lbs. Once I reached that weight I became even more lazy, and also entered a state of denial for several years. I was trying to convince myself that things weren't as bad as they were and I weighed much less than I truly did.

It wasn't until this year (March 20, 2017) that I found myself sitting in front of my doctor weighing 375lbs. I knew things were out of control and I had decided to ask him for his advice as to how I could correct my weight and return to the low 200s. He said I had 3 options. The first option being surgery, "the sleeve". The second option was medications to attempt to control my appetite, and then more medications to help with weight loss and energize myself. The final option was a drastic diet, and as he stated the last two options were definitely the most difficult because they required self control and will power.

Well, I wasn't going to have an operation that in my mind would be permanent. I know it can be reversed, but for some sick and twisted reason I felt like I would be cheating if I did that. I spent the time to get this way, and decided that I needed to "do the time" to fix this. Pills were out because I'm just not a fan of doctor's prescribing medications for everything now days. So, I told my doctor it would have to be a diet. He told me bluntly that it would be extremely difficult to maintain, but if I took it to heart it could certainly help. He told me about the Atkins diet and the LCHF diets, and recommended those along with a calorie count to boot. He also wanted me on an extreme low-carb/no carb almost type of diet.

Here is what I do every day:

I'm on 1500 calories a day and less than 15 carbs.

I drink 150oz of ice water a day (5 yeti 30oz tumblers worth). I consume between 8-12 total carbs a day. I'm usually between 1200-1500 calories a day.

I went from eating probably close to 5000-6000 calories a day, and the carbs would be through the roof. Theses meals consisted of primarily fast food breakfasts and lunches, with dinners loaded with pastas, breads, and other white foods. I would consume 4-6 sodas a day, and 3-4 beers a day. I would cap it off with usually popcorn or some ice cream before bed.

As I said, I weighed 375lbs. March 20th my doctor set out the ground rules as to my diet. He recommended I take a week or two to start waning off of fast foods and sodas and start working towards the foods that I would be able to consume on the new diet. I told him I would take 2 days to finish the stuff I had in the fridge, and then I would go cold turkey from there. I've always prided myself in my high levels of self control and will power. It's what has made me successful both in life, and now on this diet. So, I stopped cold turkey on everything after two days. March 23, 2017 weight was 375lbs, now 87 days later.....

June 18, 2017 weight is 314lbs.

I've lost 61lbs in 87 days, and I haven't cheated or strayed from my diet since then...not once. In 81 days I haven't had one soda, one beer, one piece of bread, any candy, no ice cream, no pasta, no fast food, no cake, or anything of the sort. That's 61lbs lost in 87 days. That's 0.7lbs lost per day. I couldn't be more thrilled. I've dropped 3 pant sizes, a shirt size and a half, and 2 inches from the neck size. The best part about all of this...I've done it with zero exercise. The exercise is going to start being worked in when I drop below 300 and can alleviate some of the pressure of that weight so I don't risk injuring myself. I'm excited about the next phase, and my doctor hesitates to even begin to think what weight loss will be possible when we add in exercise. My doctor feels like I'm on pace to lose 150-175lbs in one year, which he said is extremely rare for someone without either medications or surgical help.

I'm going to continue to work towards my goals, and continue consulting with my doctor to make sure that I'm staying healthy with the drastic weight loss. He and the nutritionist are stunned and they are now wanting to study my logs from my fitness pal to see exactly what I'm doing.

I've decided to share my story with the my fitness pal community to offer some potential motivation. That message is simple. You have everything you need within yourself to achieve your goals, period. Whether it is weight loss, or something else in life. I know there are the rare circumstances, and or cases that keep people from being able to do so. However, most of us have the ability to do it, but have the excuses not to. I'm just beginning my journey and have a long way to go, but I know I can do it because I already have. I hope everyone that reads this can pull some motivation from this or at the very least find the desire to keep going if you're already working on it.

I also want to thank the My Fitness Pal team for providing me with a tool that has allowed me to be able to track and see progress and success. Even when I wasn't able to physically see them yet the app was showing me the potential success I would have if I kept going. Thanks MFP, and anyone that wants to know more of my journey feel free to add me and message me. I'll be more than happy to share my methods and successes.